


here's my number, so collie maybe?

by RedShiloh



Category: The Hobbit RPF
Genre: Dog - Freeform, Fluff, Hobbit RPF Holiday Exchange, M/M, veterinary au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-18
Updated: 2013-12-18
Packaged: 2018-01-05 02:27:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1088508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedShiloh/pseuds/RedShiloh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fill for this prompt: Aidan has to take his border collie puppy to an emergency vet. He's distraught, but veterinarian Dean takes care of both of them, assures him that he can patch the dog up no problem, he'll just need to stay overnight for supervision. Doesn't have to include smut, but if author wants, Aidan could hint that he might also want some overnight supervision..?</p>
            </blockquote>





	here's my number, so collie maybe?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [queenmab_scherzo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenmab_scherzo/gifts).



> Here you go Mab, love! I fell in love with this prompt and knew I wanted to fill it from the beginning so I'm glad I got the chance to. I hope you like it!

Aidan’s always wanted a dog, ever since he could remember he’d been on at his parents for one. Each Christmas it had been at the top of his list, every birthday he’d come downstairs hoping to find a large box pricked with suspicious looking holes only to be let down when he was presented with an action man or whatever computer game was out at the time. Of course, he’d always act grateful (and really he was… but it just wasn’t the same you know), but unfortunately, with his parents’ jobs and the size of their house, getting a dog had never been a realistic option.

But Aidan had never given up hope.

And so, at the grand old age of twenty eight, when he’s living alone in a house that he doesn’t have to share with messy housemates, and he has a job with decent pay and acceptable hours, and he finally, finally feels like his own person, Aidan realises that he doesn’t need to wait for permission anymore. He could just go out and get a dog. And so, that’s exactly what he does.

He chooses a six month old Border Collie pup because he’d fallen in love with them ever since he’d watched Babe as a child and he names him Shep.

On the day Aidan goes to pick him up at the animal shelter, Shep nearly garrottes himself on his leash in his eagerness to greet him. Aidan had known from that moment, when Shep had bounded up to him and tripped over his food bowl and sent dog food skittering across the floor that Shep was the dog for him. Apparently he’d been too boisterous for his previous owner, too difficult to train.

To Aidan he’s perfect.

The only problem is, while Aidan’s never been more committed to any other decision he’s made in his life, and while he scores top points for eagerness, he sorely lacks any real dog ownership knowledge.

Owning a dog, he soon realises, is actually a lot more complicated than he had previously thought.

Shep is eager, Shep is wild, Shep apparently lacks any semblance of common sense or self-discipline. In all honesty, Shep and Aidan are very much alike, not that Aidan would ever admit as much to himself or others.

The first night he brings Shep home, he rather unwisely gives Shep the run of the house. The following morning, he comes downstairs to find tooth marks in all of his furniture and all the produce on his lower counters torn apart and scattered across the floor. After that he keeps the kitchen door closed at night.

A few weeks later, Shep wriggles loose of his leash and nearly causes a three car pileup when he tears across the road chasing after a cat. Aidan’s life practically flashes before his eyes on that day, terrified that Shep was going to get hit and inured, or worse, killed. Luckily, he comes trotting back to Aidan panting brightly and miraculously unscathed with a team of angry motorists following in his wake shaking their fists and ranting about irresponsible dog owners.

Aidan had apologised profusely and made sure to invest in a much stronger, much more reliable leash after that.

Honestly, it feels like a constant uphill struggle to keep Shep safe and happy, one Aidan often worries he fails at on every hurdle, but he never regrets bringing Shep into his life, not once.

Then, one day, Shep gets into the bottle of slug poison Aidan keeps under the sink.

He’s not even sure how it happened, he’s certain that he’d closed the kitchen door the night before, but perhaps Shep is part Houdini because the following morning he comes downstairs to find the cupboard door hanging open and the kitchen stinking of bleach with Shep lying listless on the floor looking a sorry state with dozens of green slug pellets surrounding him.

Aidan goes into full panic mode. “Shitshitshit,” he curses to himself as he gathers Shep up in a blanket and cradles him in his arms. He doesn’t even pause long enough to call ahead to the vet’s he just carries Shep out to the car, bundles him into the passenger seat then speeds off to the closest surgery with Shep lying across the seat, head resting in Aidan’s lap.

Aidan’s close to tears when he bursts through into the waiting room, cradling Shep in his arms, no doubt looking a sight but too frantic to care.

“I need help,” he says to the stunned veterinary nurse behind the desk. “My dog, he swallowed poison.”

“Ok just take a seat, Mr. O’Gorman’s seeing someone but he’ll be done any second now,” she tells him. It’s early enough that the rest of the waiting room is empty. Aidan sits himself on one of the padded seats, stroking Shep’s head as the dog whines pitifully, head lolling against Aidan’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry boy,” Aidan says softly to him, tangling his fingers in the shaggy black and white fur on Shep’s neck. “You’re gonna’ be ok, I promise.”

The nurse casts Aidan small, sympathetic glances as he sits waiting.

“Don’t worry,” she tells him, smiling. “Mr. O’Gorman’s brilliant with animals. He’s lovely too. He’ll be fine,” she nods to Shep in Aidan’s arms. Aidan tries to smile but it’s weak at best, he’s just too worried and consumed with guilt. If only he’d just made sure the kitchen door had been shut properly… he never should have kept the poison where Shep could even reach…

Finally, the doors to the surgery open and an older woman carrying a basketful of pissy growling cat steps through. She sets the basket on the counter and looks at Aidan from down her nose whilst her cat hisses and spits inside its basket.

“Mr. O’Gorman will see you now,” the nurse tells him.

 Sniffing and wiping his eyes, Aidan stands and carries Shep through the doors.

Inside the surgery, he finds a young man dressed in a white surgical coat over a pale blue button down shirt. He’s rubbing hand sanitizer into his hands and forearms as he smiles at Aidan and nods for Aidan to set Shep down on the freshly cleaned examination table. On any normal day, Aidan would be struck with how attractive this young man is, blond hair and blue eyes, a slight build with a quirky, eye catching smile; he’d usually be just Aidan’s type. Right now, all Aidan cares about is how good a vet he is and how well he can handle Shep.

“Hi my name’s Dean,” the vet says as he approaches the table and runs a firm yet gentle hand over Shep’s head. “You must be my emergency appointment… who do we have here?”

“His name’s Shep,” Aidan says, watching as Dean lifts Shep’s head and pulls back his eyelids to check the whites of his eyes then pulls back his chops to inspect his gums. “He got into some poison… I found him this morning like this.”

“You’re not a very happy pooch, are you?” Dean says, speaking to Shep rather than to Aidan and he pets Shep’s back. Then he looks at Aidan, peering at him from under his brows with those pale blue eyes of his. “Has he vomited at all?”

“No,” Aidan says, shaking his head. At least that’s something… perhaps he didn’t swallow that much.

“Oh,” Dean looks back down at Shep. “That’s a shame; it would’ve helped get some of it out of his system.”

Aidan’s face drops. Of course, how could he have been so stupid? “I’m the worst dog owner,” he says, feeling suddenly crestfallen, like he’d failed Shep. “God I’m just awful.”

“No, hey no don’t say that.” Dean looks back up at Aidan seriously. “You’re not, I can tell that much just by how worried you are. You got him here quickly, that’s the most important thing.” He rubs Shep’s fur affectionately, and then he turns to one of the overhead cupboards, pulling out a bottle of pills.

“Now Shep’s lethargic but not catatonic, he hasn’t shown any signs of seizures?”

“No,” Aidan says, following Dean’s movements around the room. There’s a deftness and surety to Dean that is a comfort to Aidan, he finds himself trusting him implicitly.

“That’s good.” Dean smiles, returning to the table, he shakes out two tablets into his hands. “This is just activated charcoal tablets, it should absorb the poison, I don’t think we’ll need to do anything as drastic as gastric lavage.” Dean tilts Shep’s head up and pries his jaws open, then he pops the tablets into Shep’s mouth and massages his throat until Shep swallows. The whole thing barely takes a few seconds and Dean makes it look like the simplest thing in the world even though Aidan knows it isn’t. He’s tried giving Shep worming tablets before, sometimes the battle can go on as long as a half hour with the tablets wrapped in three layers of bacon and Shep still manages to find a way to spit them out.

“That should do the job, but if it’s ok with you I’d like to keep him here for the rest of the day and overnight? Just so I can keep an eye on him if anything goes wrong.”

Aidan nods, running a comforting hand over Shep’s head and down his back, though honestly he’s not too sure who he’s trying to comfort more with the gesture, Shep or himself. “If you think it’s necessary… will he be ok?”

“He’ll be fine,” Dean assures Aidan. “I’ll make sure of it myself. Come back tomorrow morning to pick him up and Shep’ll be right as rain,” Dean promises. He says it with such earnestness, that Aidan has no reason not to believe him and he finds himself nodding. He’s reluctant to leave Shep, but really he has no choice.

The rest of the day is torturous for Aidan. It’s not that he doesn’t trust Dean to look after Shep, because he does, absolutely, it’s just that… well, Shep is his baby. No amount of assurances will ever comfort him fully, not until he sees with his own eyes that Shep is back to his normal, happy, mad self. He goes to work, explaining his reasons for being late and he spends the day doing very little work and spending far too much time thinking about his dog and… strangely enough… his vet with the pale blue eyes and the weirdly pronounced dimples.

Then, when his workday is finally over and he heads back home, he tries to resist the urge to call the surgery for a check-up, knowing that they would’ve called him if anything had gone wrong. It would be foolish to call up and he’d just come off as one of those weirdos who babies their animals too much (which might not be far from the truth but he’d like to pretend he’s at least a little bit sensible). He lasts up until seven that evening when he finally gives in and dials the surgery’s number.

“Hello?” A male voice, unmistakeably Dean, answers and Aidan finds himself fumbling briefly for the right words. He’d been expecting the nurse or someone else to answer… not Dean.

“It’s ah… it’s Aidan. I was just wondering how Shep’s doing?” He closes his eyes and mentally berates himself, what if Dean’s insulted by him checking up on him, like he doesn’t trust Dean to do his job properly?

“He’s doing fine, he’s a little off his food but he’s coming round,” Dean answers, his voice soft and friendly. “He’s quite the character.”

“Yeah, he is. “ Aidan smiles, feeling a mixture of pride and like he should possibly apologise knowing just how much of a character Shep can be. “Thanks, I don’t mean to be checking up on you, I’m just…”

“You’re just worried, it’s fine I get it,” Dean replies. “Last time Batman got sick I was terrible and I’m a vet, I should be used to these things.”

“Batman?”

“He’s my dog, he’s actually been keeping Shep company, I think they’re buddies now.”

“Maybe we should set up a play date for them?” Aidan suggests.

Dean laughs. “Maybe,” he says.

“Right.” Aidan clears his throat. “I should go… Am I still ok to pick him up tomorrow morning?”

“Bright and early.”

“Ok, great. Bye.”

“Bye, Aidan.”

When Aidan hangs up the phone, he wonders why he’s blushing at the way Dean had said his name.

* * *

 

The next morning, after a fitful night of sleeping and feeling like his bed is entirely too big and empty without Shep taking up space around his feet, Aidan heads for the veterinary surgery, realising only when he gets there that it isn’t even open yet.

Feeling foolish, but no less desperate, he knocks on the door, hoping that there’s someone inside already. There is, he hears the sound of locks clicking, and then the door opens to reveal Dean standing there. From the state of his hair and the fact that he’s still dressed in the same blue button down shirt from yesterday, Aidan guesses that Dean never actually left the surgery.

“Good morning,” Dean says and his voice sounds slightly rough as he gives Aidan a sleepy smile. He steps aside and nods his head for Aidan to enter. “Shep is fine. He just needed a good night’s rest, I think. He’s bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning.” As he says this, Dean opens a door leading to a back room of the surgery.

There’s a scuffle of claws on linoleum and then Shep comes bounding out into the waiting room, his tail wagging in excited circles when he sees Aidan. He jumps up and Aidan catches him, holding him against his chest as Shep gives him great big slobbery kisses all over his nose and chin.

“Hey boy, look at you! You’ve been getting the five star treatment have you?” Aidan says, laughing as Shep wriggles and whines, bracing his front paws on Aidan’s shoulders to get even closer. Aidan looks up when he notices another dog wandering into the waiting room at a much more sedate pace. He’s a shaggy yellow mutt with lopsided ears and gentle, brown eyes. “Is this Batman?” he asks, setting Shep down on the ground so he can crouch by Batman.

“It is,” Dean says. Aidan holds out a hand for Batman to sniff then scratches him behind the ear and Batman wags his tail, thumping it slowly against the floor. “Like I said… they’ve kind of become inseparable.”

“Did you stay here all night?” Aidan asks, looking up at Dean who shrugs in response, confirming Aidan’s suspicions.

“Sometimes there can be an adverse reaction to the activated charcoal… I just wanted to make sure there weren’t any complications,” Dean says. “It’s fine though, we have a small cot set up in the back room. It’s not like I was sleeping in one of the dog pens or anything.”

“Still… that’s kind of above and beyond,” Aidan says, standing up and brushing dog fur from his knees.

Again, Dean shrugs. “What kind of vet would I be if I didn’t care about my patients?” he asks then he smiles and yawns.

“What time do you start work?” Aidan asks, not missing the yawn. Dean glances down at his watch.

“Not for a few hours, actually.”

It’s then that a thought strikes Aidan. He wants to say that he doesn’t normally do this kind of thing… but then he figures that that’s the kind of thing someone who normally did this kind of thing would say. Instead he settles for simply asking Dean, “Do you ah… do you maybe want to get some coffee? Before work?”

“What, now? With you?”

Aidan shrugs and then nods. He resists the urge to shift nervously from foot to foot. Their two dogs, Batman and Shep sit between the two of them, panting and watching them happily.

“That would actually be great,” Dean says, smiling. “I could use some coffee.”

Aidan smiles so wide his cheeks start to hurt. “Great,” he says. “Because I know this place close by…”

And so, Aidan, his dog Shep, Dean, and Batman go to grab coffee, and what happens from there is a whole other story, but needless to say, Shep and Batman end up having many, many play dates together.


End file.
